Coordinated Natural Resource Monitoring in the California Deserts

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Coordinated Natural Resource Monitoring in the
California Deserts
by John Hamill Department of the Interior
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Future Challenges

• Increased Population
• Increased Development
• Increased Demand for Consumptive and Resource
  Protection
• Increased TE Species Listing
• Increased Restrictions
• Increased Litigation

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Why Monitor?

• Measure and/or avoid human impacts
• Provide early warning of problems
• Meet regulatory or legal requirement
• Enhance scientific understanding
• Evaluate effectiveness of management actions
• Measure progress towards societal goal

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Is Monitoring a Good Investment?

• Essential to staying of the right track
• Investing in initiatives that dont work is
  generally more costly than monitoring
• But, monitoring must be done right to be cost
  effective

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Elements of Monitoring Programs (Boyle 1998)

• Set of human goals
• Conceptual model of the world
• Set of indicators
• Method of data collection
• Method of calculating indicators
• Process of synthesis
• Method of reporting

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Attributes of a Good Monitoring Program (Boyle
1998)

• Relevant and decision supportive
• Based on relationship between society and the
  environment
• Allows for integrated evaluation of the system
• Adaptive and flexible
• Practical (cost-effective)

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• 25 million acres 80 public
• Multi-jurisdictions
• 3 national parks
• 10 state parks
• 7 military bases
• 4 National Wildlife Refuges
• 11 million acres BLM land
• 37 Native American tribes
• 100 communities

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Workshop Goals

• Increase awareness
• scope/objectives/status of ongoing/planned
  monitoring efforts in Cal Deserts
• others efforts and approaches
• Identify common goals and information needs
• Develop recommendations for the DMG
• Network and have fun!!

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Workshop Agenda

• Reports on ongoing/planned monitoring efforts in
  the Cal deserts
• Reports from outside the Cal deserts
• Data management needs and capabilities
• Identification of common goals/info needs
• Management recommendations
• Field Trip